NFAA Easton YanktonArchery Complex

Hours

Chamber Recognizes Cull For Archery Contributions

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of stories profiling the winners of the Yankton Chamber of Commerce awards presented this week.

———

National Field Archery Association (NFAA) president Bruce Cull has put Yankton on the map of the archery world — and this fact received more recognition this week.

During its annual banquet Tuesday, the Yankton Area Chamber of Commerce awarded Cull the inaugural Dorion Tourism Award.

The Dorion Tourism Award is named after Pierre Dorion, a fur trapper and interpreter that assisted Lewis & Clark.

Stephanie Moser, director of the Yankton Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in a press release that there were a number of nominees for the award, but Cull stood out.

"We had 17 amazing nominations," Moser said. "But as one nomination stated, ‘Bruce aimed high and has hit the target when it comes to tourism in Yankton.’"

Cull told the Press & Dakotan that it was a great honor to win the very first Dorion Award.

"I’m obviously pretty excited, pretty honored and pretty humbled," Cull said. "We’ve never even had that award before and for them to come up with that is a neat deal."

He added that having the NFAA in the area has been beneficial.

"It’s obvious that Yankton’s big on tourism," he said. "I think we’ve had a huge impact with what we’ve done with the NFAA and the archery center, and bringing these tournaments to Yankton has been big."

Cull said being the host of the World Archery Youth Championships in 2015 was one of the biggest indications thus far of the sport’s impact on Yankton.

"Last year was the real eye-opener for the community to get to see a tournament of that magnitude," he said. "Having 50 countries, these kids from all over the world and the cultural impact and cultural diversity the community got to witness is something pretty rare for a small town — or, for that matter, any town. I think that was neat and it really opened everybody’s eyes to what we really do."

Cull helped to relocate NFAA headquarters to Yankton in 2008. The NFAA Easton Yankton Archery Center will host the 2018 World Archery Indoor Championships and the 2020 World Archery Field Championships.

"We’re just going to plug forward with these tournaments," Cull said. "It’s obviously a great economic impact on the community."

He added the future tournaments present an opportunity for Yankton when tourism is traditionally lower.

"The one good thing about those future tournaments is they’re a little bit more on our shoulder season of tourism," he said. "One of them is in February and the other one is in September. We already have a lot of people here in the Memorial Day-Labor Day time period. I think this is going to be an even better opportunity to showcase these foreign visitors our community and what we have to offer."

Some of those who work with Cull feel that the award is a perfect fit for Cull.

"I think Pierre Dorion and Bruce Cull have a lot in common actually," said Brittany Salonen, NFAA marketing and events director and tourism advisory board member, in a press release. "Both are tenacious ambassadors for Yankton."